The Cannon and Breaking the Fast

The firing of the cannon f rom atop the Citadel is a tradition that all Egyptians wait for to break their fast at sunset. It may not be heard today all over, but people still enjoy turning on the television set to watch the cannon being fired before they all sit down to eat. Legend has it that this tradition started by Khedive Mohamed Ali (1805-1848) when he ordered a number of cannons for the Egyptian army, and so it happened that one cannon was accidentally fired during sunset in Ramadan and people then thought that this was a new tradition ordered by the Khedive.